Interesting Genealogical Findings...

One view in Ancestry of my immediate family tree

Since I received a subscription to Ancestry.com for Christmas, I've been re-energized in my never ending quest to learn more about my family heritage.  The branch that had proven most frustrating was my mother's father's branch.  My grandmother McLaughlin (maiden name Neddo) had told me that my Grandfather William McLaughlin was the son of a James McLaughlin and a woman named Mary Jane Duffy.  I was told that Ms. Duffy had come from Malone, New York, originally.  That was for many years the extent of my knowledge.

I have figured out that the best way to decode this family lineage is to concentrate on one individual and gather every bit of documentation I can locate that relates to that person.  In the case of "Grampa Will," I collected the U.S. Census information on him from 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, and 1940, the New York census from 1915 and 1925, several city directories, his U.S. World War II Draft Registration Card, and his Social Security application and claims.  From these documents alone you can gain insight into when a person was born, where and with whom they were living at various times, how they earned a living, home addresses, when children were born, marriage data, when and where they died.

A typical census entry -- this one from 1930

From these data sources, I determined that Grandfather William McLaughlin was born in Whitehall, New York, on the 10th of June, 1881.  He married my Grandmother, Eva Ann Neddo, on June 12, 1906, still in Whitehall.  By 1910, the newly-married couple had moved to Schenectady and now had a daughter, born on May 24, 1907, who was destined to become my mother.  I learned that my Grandfather was a machinist in the Refrigeration Department of the General Electric Company, Schenectady's largest employer.  Perhaps most important, I was able to identify his parents as James Louis McLaughlin and Mary Jane Duffy.

I learned some things that surprised me.  One fact is that there was a son born to William and Eva who died in infancy.  My mother never mentioned that she had had a brother.  But all this insight inspired me to chase down James Louis to see what I could learn from the archives.  I guessed that he would have been born in about 1850.  I began by searching for a James McLaughlin living in Whitehall, New York, in the 1860 Federal Census.  I found a young man by the correct name who was 10 years old.  The census indicated he was the only child in a household headed by John McLaughlin, an illiterate "Day Worker,"age 40, and his wife, Margarett, age 38.  Now I potentially had the confirmed, documented names of my great-grandfather and my great-great-grandfather.  Further searching revealed that James married Mary Jane Duffy in 1877.  What made this somewhat confusing was that Mary Jane was rather casual about the name she went by in various census interviews.  She might be Jennie or Mary or Mary Jennie or Mary Jane.  I began to believe that James had various spouses at different times.  But on the Federal census of 1900, the question was asked, "How long in the current marriage?"  Both James (now calling himself James Sr.) and Jennie M. (her moniker in 1900) indicate they have spent 23 years married to each other.  They have also produced 6 children.  One of those children was my great-uncle Jim (James Louis, Jr.) whom I remember quite vividly.  He became something of a surrogate grandfather to the Mead children after "Grampa Will" passed away in 1942.

The McLaughlin house
at 349 Summit Ave.

James, Sr. and Mary Jane moved to Schenectady sometime between 1900 and 1910.  James is a "Conductor on a Steam Railroad" according to the 1910 census.  This probably was the New York Central, which served Schenectady.  They are living with 5 children and a boarder named Cora Millett at 349 Summit Avenue, a fairly new neighborhood of attractive frame homes.  I was unable to determine when James, Sr, met his Maker, but he is no longer with us by 1930.  Mary Jane passed away in 1922.

The McLaughlin marker
at the Boardman Cemetery

In searching for a grave marker for James and Mary Jane, I discovered an enormous marker in the Boardman Cemetery of Whitehall, New York, that covers multiple generations of McLaughlins.  The marker not only confirmed that James was indeed the son of John McLaughlin, but led to much more.  In the site called "Find-A-Grave," there was actually a pair of images of this impressive grave marker.  Tantalizingly, it looked as if there might be more engraving on the other three sides of the marker.  

I posted several requests on the Internet hoping to find someone willing to trudge out to the marker and take additional pictures.  One of these paid off.  On a Facebook page called "Washington County, NY, Ancestors," a compassionate lady named Sara Clarkson posted the following: "Do you have the Whitehall Cemetery book - compiled by Charles Moore, 1998? If not, here's the McLaughlin page from the Boardman Cemetery section - you should be able to click on this image to make it larger."  Here's the relevant section:

I thanked Ms. Clarkson for her help and indicated that I'd never heard of the book.  She responded, 

"Charles Moore created a "cemetery records" book for each town in Washington County, NY - and the books are a treasure trove of info about basic names, dates, and family relationships. I first learned about the cemetery records books when I sent an inquiry to the Washington County Historical Society in Fort Edward, NY - another helpful group with lots of info to share."

With this one contribution, I learned that Margarett had never been John's wife, as indicated in the 1860 census.  (This was likely an incorrect entry by the census taker.)  She was his sister!  Later census records confirmed that.  More importantly, perhaps, was that I now had a second direct ancestor who had fought in the Civil War.  I of course started to do Google searches on New York 169th Infantry Regiment, the unit in which John McLaughlin had served.  As with so many genealogical quests, this one would take me down unanticipated paths.

I quickly encountered more source material than I could quickly digest.  There was a Website, part of the New York State Military Museum and Veterans Research Center, that was part of their "Unit History Project," dedicated to the 169th.    I also found a Facebook page dedicated to the unit.  I found a roster of all the men in the regiment, compiled by a gentleman named Steven Wiezbicki.  I learned that Mr. Wiezbicki had also published a newsletter dealing with the unit's history.  Naturally, I contacted Mr. Weizbicki!

Scene from the Battle of Cold Harbor

Mr. Steven Weizbicki is the great-great-grandson of 1st Serg't. Patrick J. Aylmer, Co. G of the 169th.  He is a passionate lover of history and is writing a detailed history of the regiment.  He has worked for years researching and documenting the unit and its people.  He offered to write a detailed historicam biography of my ancestor's involvement with the 169th and I have given him the go-ahead.  As he has been feeding me tidbits of his findings, I have learned that John McLaughlin participated in the battle of Cold Harbor (Remembered as one of American history's bloodiest, most lopsided battles. Thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a hopeless frontal assault against the fortified positions of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's army.) and Fort Fisher.  He was decorated for valor after the Fort Fisher encounter.  Mr. Weizbicki even located Great-Great-Grandfather John's obituary in the National Tribune, the newspaper of the Union veterans: "McLOUGHLIN. At Whitehall, N. Y., March 18, John McLoughlin. Co. F, 169th N. Y.  The comrade enlisted in 1862, and served until the close of the war.  He was in 23 battles, and at Fort Fisher was the first to plant the flag on the works.  The comrade was severely wounded at Cold Harbor.  He was an honored member of A. H. Tanner Post, which attended his funeral in a body."

The next challenge is to figure out the mysterious whereabouts of "Mary A." listed on the grave marker as "wife of John" and "mother" (of James Louis?) who for some reason never lived with John when censuses were being tabulated.  What's that about?

What's not to love about doing this research?!?

Scouting in Huntsville...

In February, 2010, I posted an entry on this blog describing my personal experience as a Boy Scout in the 1950s.  I ended that post with the following, "Shortly after I arrived in Huntsville in 1978, I was recruited again. Margo and I became scout leaders of a faltering troop and nursed it back to health, after which we took on a co-ed explorer post at Holy Spirit Catholic Church. That's a topic for a later blog..."  It's high time I finished that thought.

Margo and I moved to Huntsville as a newly married couple April, 1978.  I was engaged as a general contractor building a skateboard park about which I have written before.  My first summer in Huntsville was involved with moving hundreds of truckloads of dirt and rock, building an access road across what had been a muddy vacant meadow, and sculpting the ground into the giant forms of bowls and undulating surfaces of the park.  It was the kind of work that attracted visitors and onlookers.

One day a gentleman named Mike showed up and introduced himself as a local executive with the Boy Scouts of America.  He was excited about the construction of this very comprehensive youth facility and wanted to brainstorm ideas for cooperative efforts involving the park and the Boy Scouts.  Naturally, I shared with him my very fond memories of Troop 72 in Schenectady, New York,  I also shared my experiences as a scout administrator on the Gulf Coast during the previous few years.  Then he surprised me by asking if I'd be interested in becoming a volunteer leader in Huntsville.  I responded that I'd have to talk to Margo, as anything I might get involved in would have to be a joint effort.

When I presented the idea to Margo, she eagerly got on board.  Margo had a cousin, Missy Reed, who had been a recognized Girl Scout leader for many years.  Every year, she would bring a busload of New Orleans Girl Scouts to the Mississippi Gulf Coast where they would all camp out at Margo's house.  Girls slept on the floors of every room, having overflowed the available beds and couches.  They would spend these weekends exploring the many attractions of the Mississippi Gulf area, eating S'mores, singing around a campfire, and generally having a blast.  Margo had always enjoyed supporting this great organization.  She was ready to be a Boy Scout volunteer.

Our first assignment, after we acquired the necessary uniforms and acccessories, was to try to revive an ailing scout troop at a Baptist church in Northeast Huntsville.  Membership had been dwindling and there had been significant turnover in the adult leadership of the troop.  I described to Margo how Bill Clancy and I had spread the Boy Scout movement in south Mississippi.  When we would visit a rural, predominantly black community for the first time, we'd find the pastor of the local Baptist church.  If we could sell him on the idea of a Boy Scout troop in his community, we were home free.  I suggested we start with the Pastor of this church whose troop we wanted to resuscitate.  We discovered that therein lay our challenge.  The Pastor was only reluctantly supportive of the Boy Scout presence, expressing his concern that it competed with the church's other youth-oriented activities.

Margo and I did what we could to assist this troop, recruiting more parental involvement and support, introducing more formality in the conduct of meetings, expanding the variety of activities in the troop, and increasing the frequency of outings -- hikes, camp-outs, canoe trip, and the like.  Unfortunately, the troop never grew by much during our tenure.  It was a constant struggle to keep parents actively participating in troop activities.  We finally suggested to the local executive that maybe we weren't the right couple to revive this troop.   We had nursed it back to health -- it was now a properly-functioning scout troop, but it was going to require constant care and feeding in order for it to thrive.  I don't know today whether or not the troop still exists.

The executive suggested that we might want to start an Explorer Post at our home church, Holy Spirit, on Airport Road in Huntsville.  That really appealed to us.  The church already sponsored a Boy Scout troop.  An Explorer Post would be a natural expansion of that program for older kids.  Mike, the scout executive, suggested a "High Adventure" Post, a term that was used for Explorer Posts that might undertake any sort of adventure and not be restricted to one area or another.  We got buy-in from the Pastor, Father O'Leary, and held some organizational meetings.  In no time, we had plenty of eager volunteer parents and energetic teen age members.

We tried to make our Explorer Post appealing by planning really exciting adventures.  We got the National Speleological Society to help us with a couple of cave exploring weekends.  We took our post hiking on the Appalachian Trail in north Georgia.  Canoeing on the Tennessee River involved most of our adult volunteers and youth members.

This was a co-ed organization (an idea that took me a while to get used to) so these outings were appealing to the members as social opportunities.  That certainly helped our member involvement.  One night, the city-wide scouting organization held an event called "Huntsville After Dark."  This was an all-night event involving lots of people.  We took carloads of kids on a carefully-scheduled round robin tour that involved visits with briefings at the city jail (including the drunk tank), a courtroom, an all-night radio station, a funeral parlor, the central fire station and its dispatch center, the emergency room at Huntsville Hospital, and a HEMSI location.  It was an exhausting night but very educational.

Perhaps the most innovative outing we did was to take the entire post to a soaring airport in Eagleville, Tennessee, where every individual got to go aloft in a sailplane with an instructor pilot and spend about twenty minutes soaring.  This was an active, innovative group.

Gradually, over a period of a couple years, our parental participation lessened.  The youthful members were just as eager to try new adventures, but it became harder and harder to find the necessary volunteer drivers and chaperones.  Margo and I got to the point where, regrettably, we felt like unpaid baby sitters.  In about 1981, we had to move to Flintville, TN, to be closer to Margo's work in Tullahoma, so we ended our voluntary work with the Explorer Post.  At some point later on, the organization folded.  We learned many lessons from our experience, perhaps the most important of which is the absolute necessity of parental engagement for a youth organization to thrive.

The good news is that the Boy Scout Troop at Holy Spirit Church, Troop 361, is still a thriving, energetic, active organization.

Hershey 2018 Auction Results...

Lot No. 217 at RM/Sotheby's auction at Hershey in early October was a feast for the eyes.  This 1939 Lincoln-Zephyr Convertible Coupe, an older restoration, but cosmetically appealing, exchanged owners for $79,750.

As the description in the auction catalog described it, "A style leader from the beginning, the original Zephyr featured a tall, prow-like grille for its first two years. A new face appeared on the 1938 Zephyr, featuring a low-mounted, horizontal grille that would have a tremendous influence on automotive designers, and soon after many American cars were emulating the late ’30s Zephyr ensemble. Inside, the stylish design aesthetic continued with a central console rising from the floor and a large, multi-gauge cluster acting as an orb-like cornice. Within the large, Art Deco scripted roundel was the speedometer, as well as gauges for temperature, fuel, oil, and battery. A smaller clock sat below. Power came from the trusty 110-hp L-head V-12, shifted through the rugged Zephyr three-speed manual transmission, which would become a favorite among hot rodders of a later generation.

The car offered here is one of the few remaining today of only 640 convertibles produced for 1939, and has spent most of its life in Arizona. Cosmetically restored several years ago, it is beautifully finished in Zephyr Coach Maroon and accented with sparkling chrome. The exterior is elegantly complimented with a tan canvas top and a recently refurbished leather interior. Dual side-view mirrors, fender skirts, wide whitewall tires, and an accessory external spotlight add to the charm of this masterful Art Deco design.

A true icon of streamlined 1930s styling, the Zephyr has become more and more coveted over the years. This is a superb example."

We couldn't agree more...